A counter-terror operation, codenamed Wildlife, is being mounted in Britain’s most precious colony, Gibraltar. Its purpose: to capture and abduct a high-value jihadist arms-buyer. Its authors: an ambitious Foreign Office Minister, and a private defence contractor who is also his close friend. Kit Probyn, Foreign Office veteran with a safe pair of hands and no previous experience of the dark arts, is to be the Minister’s eyes and ears on the ground. His “red telephone”.

A half-starved young Russian man in a long black overcoat is smuggled into Hamburg at dead of night. He has an improbable amount of cash secreted in a purse round his neck. He is a devout Muslim. Or is he? He says his name is Issa.

John le Carré’s 22nd novel, Our Kind of Traitor, is set in contemporary, recession gripped Britain. A left-leaning young Oxford academic and his barrister girlfriend take an off-peak holiday on the Caribbean island of Antigua. By seeming chance they bump into a Russian millionaire called Dima who owns a peninsula and a diamond-encrusted gold watch. He also has a tattoo on his right thumb, and wants a game of tennis.

In what many expect to be a successful awards season for ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’, Maria Djurkovic won the film’s first award for ‘Best Technical Achievement’, for her production design, at the British Independent Film Awards 2011.

Tomas Alfredson’s new adaptation of ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’ has already been a box office success in the UK and is opening in the US on the 9th of December. Watch eight new clips on Johnlecarre.com.

Tomas Alfredson’s new adaptation of ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’ has already been a box office success in the UK and is opening in the US on the 9th of December. Watch eight new clips on Johnlecarre.com.